Method of recording and reproducing sounds.



. J. c. ENGLISH.

METHOD OF RECORDING AND REPRODUOING SOUNDS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 14, 1905.

957,195, Patented May 10,1910.

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Application filed oetober 1d, 1905. Serial We. 2853383..

To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, JOHN C. ENGLISH, acitizen of the United States, and resident of the city of Camden, countyof Camden, i

State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Methods of Recording and Reproducing Sounds, of which the followin isa full, clear, and exact description, re erence being had, to theaccompanying drawings, forming apart of this specification.

My invention relates to a method of making a permanent undulatory recordof sounds, articulate, musical 'or produced in any manner, and, furtherto the method whereby recorded sounds are reproduced without the use ofa reproducing sty us.

In the methods of reproducing sound heretoiore known, it has beenproposed to record upon a suitably prepared surface; a' record of thesound waves produced in the vicinity of the recording mechanism; to makefrom said record aduplicatein some suitahle; and durable-material; andthen to cause a repreducin stylus to follow the undulations recorded onsaid record to produce vibrations in a re reducing diaphlagm sa to thoseoriginadly impressed upon the recording diaphragm. ln instrumentsconstructed in acoordanoe with the above principle however, the soundsemanating from such reproducing apparatus, while approximately close tothe sounds originally pruced, are more or less'iniperfect andunsatisfactory by reason of the additional sounds and tones, added to thsounds orally recorded, and caused by the scraping or scratch' of the reroducing stylus upon the reeor as it to ow ohjeets the forming of ahoriginal or master remrd of sound in the form of a tape, one of*the'edges of which is provided with undulations ooonding to sound wavesto form a ter record of sound and to form horn said r record one or moreduplioat/e copies of said master recordfor com- 2. Meet of my inventionis 'to duplicate profile tapes for ale rd. A. further object of myinvention 15 to does commercial duplicate records from a master recordof sound by means of a profile mechanism.

Afurther object of my invention will appear in the specification andclaims below.

My invention consists in forming a permanent record of the soundoriginally pro throu h a, fluid current and to impress upon said uidcurrent the undulations recorded on the said record. I

More specifically m invention consists in form ng along one age of asuitable tape a series of undulations or serrations corresponding to thewavesoi the sound originally produced, and causing the edge of said tapeto travel over a narrow slit or elongated opening through which acurrent of air is caused to pass, said tape being so located withrespect to said opening that the edge ofthe tape having the undulationsthereon, will at all times partially close said opening, whereby the.size of opening is constantly varied h the variations on the edge of thetape, an the current of air passing through said opening will haveimpressed upon it reproduction of the sound ed on the tape. Y

My improved method of recording and reproducing sound may heput intoclient by means of a variety of apparatus, one

ill sheet 0f H a m in hic1 igure 1 represenm on anexrated or g fiedscale a portion oi a suitably prehave been recorded in the form oflongitudinal series of transverse undulations Fig. 2 is a sectionthereof on the line Q 2, Fig. 1; Fig. 3 illustrates the manner in whichthe fi shown in 1 is divided longitudinly along the line of the recordto form two insider records; it illustrates record; Fig. 5 shows oneform of a repro ducing apparatus employed to produce the sounds reoordedon the d of the rd; 6 illustrates a modal. cootion in which theair isdrawn ughdhe aperture from the horn and illustrates another modificahonin whio theairina i w. out my invenh on, I prepare a method beingillustrated in the accoinpanyo paper duplicate made from said masterPatented May 11d, ddliflh duced and causing said record to travelvibrations or undulations which are an exact originally record paredtape upon which the sound waves he forced ugh the aperture in either dii2 a n flexible metallic tape, 1, provided preferably with twolongitudinal series of equally spaced perforations 2, by coating one ormore surfaces thereof with any suitable substance which will serve torecord the vibrations of a recording stylus, the cutting point of whichoscillates in a plane substantially parallel to the said record surface.The point or cutting. edge of said stylus 1s made of a suitable hardmaterial and is so located with respect to said tape, that the tracingmade thereby cuts through the coating material 3, and forms anundulatory channel 4, the bottom of which is formed by the metal tapeitself. The perforations 1n the tape serve the purpose of engaging theteeth of a suitable feed roller, which may be driven at a constant rateof speed, to feed the prepared tape under the record stylus in thedirection of its length, without-slip or variation in speed. In Figs. 1

' and 21s illustrated a tape upon the surface of which a record groovehas been traced in the manner above described, the coating 3 being cutthrough to the metal tape 2, as shown in Fig. 2.

In the actual practice of my invention, I may increase the amplitude andsharpness of the undulations recorded on the tape, with a view to makingthe variations on the profile as pronounced as possible, and Iaccomplish this by a variety ofmeans such as by locating the position ofthe center of oscillation of the stylus bar nearer to the center .of therecording diaphragm,- or .by increasing the length of the stylus bar onthat side of the center of-oscillation which carries the stylus, andalso by causing the record surface to travel at a lower rate of speed.than is now usually employed.

The next step in my improved process consists in removing one half ofthematerial of the tape atoneside of the groove. I preferably do this bydividing. the tape longitudinally along-the line of the record byfilling the groove with some suitable chemical agent which will not act"upon the coating material but will cut through the metal tape along theline' of the record. I 'then' remove the cdating .material in anysuitable manner.. .By these or similar steps,

I am enabled to roduce two metallic tapes 7 5, 5, each of whic has onits edge an exact. profile record of the sounds. originally produoed,and each of whichalsohas a series of perforations 2 by which said tapemay be positively fed, or caused to travel-over or under a reproduc'er.It is, however, with- 'in thescope of my invention to remove one half ofthe metallic record tape in any suitable manner, and in removing it, tocompletely destroy the same, in order to produce one perfect profiletape, although-g1 prefer ably form two master tapes nfthe mannerdescribed above.

contour of the tape the size of the openingthrough which In Fig. 5 Ihave illustrated one form of apparatus inwhich my improved method ofreproducing sound may be performed in which 6 represents a drivlng drummounted upon shaft 7 to which is secured a gear 8 adapted to mesh withthe gear 9 fixed to the shaft 10. The shaft 10 has also secured to it asecond gear 11 meshing with the gear 12 fixed to the shaft 13. Alsosecured to the shaft 13 is a feed roller 14 having pins 15 adapted toengage perforations 2 of the tape 5".

For the purpose ofsecuring a positive engagement of the pins 15 with thetape, I may mount on a suitable shaft 16 located above the feed roller14, a roller 17 provided with holes 18 which will register with ducingdevice.

. Mounted ina suitable position adjacent to profile tape is a horn 25 orother suitable sound amplifying device, with the small end 26 adjacentto the surface of the ta In the form of my invention illustrated m Fig.

5 this smaller end of the horn is provided the direction ofwhichistransverse to the with a narrow elongated slit or opening 27,

direction of the tape.- The relation of the position between end slit'or opening of the tape is shown diagrammatically in two positions inFig. 4.

In Fig. 51benea'th the narrow opening 27 and adjacent to tape is a block28 provided with a chamber 29 connected by'a pipe, or tube 30 with theair chamber 31, 011: a suitable pump, whichmay be used to produce eithera pressure or a partial vacuum in the chamberBl.

' The operation of this device is as follows: i

The drum beingdriven from any si iitable v source of motive power, itsmotion is communicated through the. gears 8, 9, 11 and 12 roller 14, andthrough the fricf tion drums 19 and 20 to the winding drum to the feed22, the relation of the frictiondrums- 19 and,

20 bein ,such that the wind-in drum 22 will 7 .120 thetape taut betweent e feed roller 15 and,

always driven at as edw 'ch will keep said winding drum 22. Air beingforced from the chamber 31 throughp'ipe 30 to the chamber 29 and one"end of the elongated.

opening being alwaysjopen and free to per- 12 mit a column at air topass through the;

same, as indi'catedii1'Fig. 4,-the tape 5"is driven over the'zopenin Iwilf constantly change t e The varyingair may pass, and consequentlywill produce variations in the column of air passing through theopening. The undulations or: vibrations in the column of air allowed topass through the opening will correspond to the undulations recorded onthe profile of the tape. In this manner, the column of air will haveimpressed upon it undulations or vibrations which are the exactreproductions of the sound originally produced and recorded on the tapeand when such vibrations are amplified through the horn 24:, the resultis a clear, loud and exact reproduction of the original sounds free fromany disagreeable and undesirable qualities resulting from the scratch ofa reproducing stylus over a record.

Fig. 6 indicates a modified construction in which the narrow slit orelongated opening 27 is located in the lower block 28 and the smallerend 26 of the horn has a chamber 29 adjacent to tape.

In this form of my invention the direction of the current of air wouldbe reversed towhat it is in apparatus shown in Fig. 5, and the pumpwould be used to produce a partial vacuum in chamber 31. I,

In Fig. 7 I have shown both the smaller end of the horn and the lowerblock as being provided with registering elongated openings27, 27'respectively, and in this form of my invention the current of air may beimpelled in either direction.

While I have described my invention in the form above set forth, it isobvious that it would be impracticable to use a metallic profile tape,formed as above described as a commercial record. I therefore propose touse either oneor both of the tapes shown in Fig. 3 as master tapes, andproduce duplicates thereof in a material suitable for commercialpurposes. I havefound that 'a tape of a good quality of stiif paperwill. answer all the requirements. The commercial paper. tapes may beproduced in large quantities from said master tapes in the followingmanner: A large number of plain strips of paper having beenbroughttogether and stacked under compression, the master tapev iscaused to guide or form a templet for a suitable profiling machine,while the cutting endof themachine is caused to trayel transverse to thestacked'tapes" and to reproduce upon the edges thereof an exact copy ofsaid master tape. A paper duplicate of the original-master record madeinthis manner I I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent of theUnited States, is

1. The method of forming commercial profile tapes for use in soundreproducing devices which consists in forming a master profile tape, andduplicating said master record by means of a suitable profiling machineupon a plurality of layers of paper tapes.

2. The method of forming commercial profile tapes for use in soundreproducing devices which consists in forming a master profile tape,using said master tapeas a templet in a suitable profiling machine, andcausing the cutting point of said profiling machine to reproduce theundulations of the master'tape simultaneously on the edges of aplurality of stacked blank paper tapes.

3. The method of forming commercial profile tape for use in soundreproducing devices, which consists in forming a master profile metallictape, and using said master tape as a templet for reproducingsimultaneously aplurality of commercial duplicates thereo 4C. The methodof forming commercial profile tape for use in sound. reproducingdeprofile tape and duplicating said master tape by means of a profilingmachine acting upon a plurality of stacked and compressed tapes. 6. Themethod of forming commercial profile .tapes for userin sound reproducingdevices, which consis'ts in forming a master profile record andduplicating saidmaster record simultaneously upon the edges of aplurality of tapes.

, 7. The method of forming commercial profile tapes for use inconnection with sound reproducing devices which consists in W forming amaster tape one edge of which is providedwith an undulating contourcorresponding to sound waves, stacking and com ressin to ether aplurality of paper P g g tapes and placing them in a profiling machine,substantially simultaneously cutting one edge of-said stacked tapes bysaid profiling mechanism, in which the said master tape is used as atemplet for guiding the cutting tool, whereby a plurality of paper tapessubstantially identical with each other and corresponding to saidmaster. tape are produced.

ln'witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day ofOctober,

A. 11,1905. v r

w 7 JOHN C. ENGLISH. Witnesses: ALSTQN B. Moor/mu,

ALEXANDER vices, which consists in forminga master

